About the President
Dr. Susan A. Cole

Dr. Susan A. Cole assumed office in September of 1998 as the eighth president of Montclair State University, which is the second largest and fastest growing university in New Jersey, approaching 17,000 graduate and undergraduate students. Dr. Cole served as President of Metropolitan State University in Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota from 1993 to 1998 and as Vice President for University Administration and Personnel at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey from 1980 to 1991. She also served as Associate University Dean for Academic Affairs at Antioch University and Visiting Senior Fellow in Academic Administration at the City University of New York.

Dr. Cole currently serves on the boards of the Liberty Science Center, the American Council on Education, and the New Jersey Performing Arts Center Council of Trustees and has served on the boards of Mountainside Hospital and the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce. She has also served on the Property Tax Convention Task Force, appointed by Governor McGreevey, as co-chair of Governor McGreevey’s higher education transition team and on his Education cabinet, as co-chair of Governor DiFrancesco’s World Class Economy Task Force, and as a member of Governor Whitman’s trade missions to South America and Asia. She was chair of the board of The St. Paul Riverfront Corporation and served on a number of other boards, including The Saint Paul Foundation, Twin Cities Public Television, Western Bank, and the Science Museum of Minnesota. Dr. Cole earned three degrees in English and American literature: a B.A. degree from Barnard College, Columbia University and an M.A. and Ph.D. from Brandeis University. Dr. Cole writes and speaks extensively about current issues in American higher education.